Awang Tengah says submissions of exaggerated boundaries by NCR land owners lead to conflict and delay
(Standing from fifth right) Gira, Awang Tengah, Dr Annuar, Hii, Temenggong Datuk Wan Hamid Edruce and others in a group photo with the land gazette and compensation cheque recipients after the presentation ceremony yesterday.
SIBU: Owners of native customary rights land are reminded not to let greed overcome them when asking for their land to be surveyed under the new perimeter survey initiative.
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan said they should not make false claims over the boundary of their lands, which had become one of the major factors that hindered the process of perimeter survey.
“If the proof of land is authentic, the authority will have no problem to approve it but there are those who are greedy and want their land to be surveyed beyond the original boundary.
“This will lead to conflict among the land owners and thus slow down issuance of official documents.
“I want all those involved to give their cooperation and be reasonable when making claim of land to be surveyed,” he said before presenting Bumiputera communal reserve gazettes and land compensation cheques at Sibu Civic Centre here yesterday.
The gazettes under Section 6 of Sarawak Land Code were for a total of 37,454 hectares of land involving 82 longhouses in areas along Sungai Igu, Tamin, Mile 36 Oya Road, Sibu/Bintulu Road and Sekuau and Sungai Sebindang in Ulu Oya.
A total of RM13.6 million were presented to 105 land owners for land acquired for the construction of SK and SMK Permai, SK Dudong, Ulu Sungai Merah 33/11KV substation in Sibu and the Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba) station in Selangau.
Awang Tengah, who is also Second Minister of Urban Development and Natural Resources, assured that the government always recognised people’s land.
“With the gazettes, land owners will not have to worry about issue of land encroachment.
“The gazette is enough to prove their ownership of the land and marks the boundaries between their land and others’,” he said.
He later advised the gazette recipients to make optimum use of their land for their own benefits and keep their land for future generations.
Awang Tengah (third right) presents the land gazette to a longhouse chief from Sungai Igu as (from right) Hii, Dr Annuar, Norlina, Gira, Abdullah and Penghulu Andrewson Ngalai Asom look on.
Tuai Rumah Kiroh Tegong (standing left) and Tuai Rumah Rining Balang (standing right) with a fellow longhouse chief showing the communal land gazette that they received yesterday.
On a similar matter, he mentioned that 500 areas covering 786,293 hectares across the state had been surveyed under the new initiative from 2010 until July 31 this year, out of which 409 areas involving 627,796 hectares had been gazetted.
For Sibu Division, he said survey had been conducted on 51 areas with total size of 120,574 hectares, out of which 25 areas (63,289 hectares) had been issued gazettes.
Also present were Assistant Minister of Education and Technological Research Dr Annuar Rapaee, Tamin assemblyman Christopher Gira Sambang, state Land and Survey Department (LSD) deputy director (Management) Abdullah Julaihi, Sibu Resident Hii Chang Kee and LSD Sibu superintendant Norlina Raee.